Photo by Whitehorse Star
A LONG WAY TO GO – Northern Cross president Richard Wyman says there may come a day when the company needs to transport oil or natural gas during the exploration phase of its project near Eagle Plains. But to suggest it will begin happening next year is premature at this point, he said.
The chair of Skagway's port commission says it would welcome the opportunity to export oil from the Yukon.
The chair of Skagway's port commission says it would welcome the opportunity to export oil from the Yukon.
Tim Bourcy said the matter was discussed last week at the commission's regular meeting, prompted by inquiries from Northern Cross. The company is currently conducting an advanced exploration program for oil and gas in northern Yukon.
Northern Cross has indicated it may be interested as early as next year in trucking eight to 10 tanker loads a day of light crude from Eagle Plains to Skagway for storage until it can be moved in regular weekly shipments, Bourcy said.
The commission's chair said the proposal would require the standard review to see how it would fit with existing port facilities, but it is not a complicated proposal.
"It's probably a much more simpler operation than some of the mining operations,” he said of the port's management of concentrate coming out of the Yukon for shipment overseas.
Bourcy emphasized last week's discussion among members of the port commission was prompted by informal conversations with the company regarding what might be involved in the export of oil.
There's been no formal request from Northern Cross to move into an advanced stage of planning, he explained.
Northern Cross president Richard Wyman explained in an interview today it would be absolutely premature to suggest the company will be shipping oil or natural gas next year.
It's simply looking at options for shipping product and is talking with the port of Skagway to explore those options, just as it has talked to the port of Haines and just as it has looked at trucking it south to Fort Nelson, B.C.
Northern Cross is still very much in the exploration stage, and is nowhere near a decision whether it has enough oil or natural gas in northern Yukon to support a positive production decision, he said.
Wyman said at some point, there may come a time when the exploration program will require an extended flow test to determine how well and how much oil and gas will flow from the exploration wells.
There will be oil or gas flowing from those wells during the extended test that will have to go somewhere because there's no market yet in the Yukon for the product, he said.
"In order to support any investment, to get to that, you have to have a lengthy period of testing so you understand how the wells are going to perform,” he said from the company's Whitehorse office after returning from Eagle Plains.
"As you go down that path, stuff is coming out of the ground, and you have to take it somewhere, and that is what we are looking at, somewhere to take it.”
Wyman said he can't say if, or when, the company will need to move oil and gas produced in the exploration phase, whether it's next year, two years from now, three years, or four years from now.
Whether Northern Cross will need to move 2,000 barrels a day or 500 barrels a day during the extended flow test is too early to say, said the company president.
Wyman said the company is just now completing its 3-D seismic program. It will have to analyze the results before it decides how to proceed with its exploration program.
The company has also drilled four new exploration wells in the last two years. It has permits for another two that were supposed to be drilled last winter but were stalled because of not enough snow to provide the required cover for environmental reasons.
Northern Cross couldn't drill the wells this winter because the 90 employees required for the 3-D program simply exhausted the capacity at the company's camp and the Eagle Plains Lodge, Wyman said.
He said if and when they'll go forward with the two others wells already permitted will probably be a decision that will come after examining the results from the seismic work.
The company also has the licences for the four discovery wells in the area that date back to the 1960s.
The discovery wells confirmed there's crude oil in northern Yukon, but whether there's enough to go into production is another question entirely, he emphasized.
Wyman said northern Yukon is a long way from the markets, with no existing infrastructure to support the oil and gas industry, such as oil field companies which provide an array of services to the industry down south.
Making a production decision in the Yukon is a lot more involved than it would be in Alberta, he said.
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Comments (18)
Up 4 Down 6
Sandy Helland on Apr 18, 2014 at 5:12 am
Poised to pump it...sounds like they've already fracked it.
After all, does simple drilling into shale suddenly release the gases, the fluids, the product?
The Yukon doesn't have water testing in place and it should be the baseline.
Up 1 Down 10
B. Foster on Apr 17, 2014 at 11:25 am
@just....
Why do you comment at all if your attention span won't allow you 5 paragraphs of someone's opinion on a topic?
You're partially right though. Most often any points or questions I pose go unanswered in lieu of banalities and ill considered rhetoric....I wonder myself why I bother to comment.
Did I lose you again?
Up 10 Down 7
Salar on Apr 17, 2014 at 2:10 am
It will never happen......so don't get yer knickers all up in a knot folks.....we will however continue to drive cars and stuff.
We will also always be fuelled by the Federal teat.....we will always have health care etc....don't go Noahizing on us.
Nothing wrong with allowing the little shots to continue to think the Yukon is a great place for development.
Up 10 Down 2
Just Say'in on Apr 16, 2014 at 1:50 pm
@B.foster Gee Whizz. Can you give us the Readers Digest version? You must have got an "A" in typing class.
Up 10 Down 3
north_of_60 on Apr 16, 2014 at 1:22 pm
I'm against mining in some regions like the Peel. I'm for mining with stringent regulations and enforcement in areas like the region from Dawson to Kluane on the west side of the Yukon. That's a matter of record and fully understood by those who are paying attention.
Specific details are important, generalizations are generally incorrect, and personal attacks only cheapen one's argument while reducing any credibility.
Up 2 Down 17
B. Foster on Apr 16, 2014 at 12:00 am
@north
You constantly, when faced with views contrary to your own, throw out the gauntlet to those who oppose oil and gas development in the Yukon to stop using products / services derived from oil or be faced with the vilifying label of hypocrite by your definition. Yet, you yourself speak out against mining in comment to articles related to increased mining activity in the territory even though you lead a lifestyle that utilizes products gleaned from mining activity. I will refrain from pointing out the hypocrisy in this stance....whoops.
We are all products of our society and have little substantive recourse in the way this society functions other than to speak out. To expect one to suddenly live in some other manner, contrary to and in defiance of systems that have evolved over large spans of time is, well, stupid. Things take time to change and are impacted by factors that themselves take time to develop or be noticed.
It is my hope that our territory can forestall the lack of wisdom playing out in the global trend of materialism / overconsumption. We give little to no thought to the precious nature of our natural resources and our inherent connection to those resources. Further we discount the systems ruined by the exploitation of a given resource, whatever that resource may be.
Simple huh? Humanity will eventually be faced with having squandered the gift of our big brains, yet the price of that reckoning will be paid by the planet itself and all it's inhabitants. Ironic that the only entity capable of destroying the planet is incapable of stopping itself from destroying it.
In closing I'd like to point out to you your penchant for thinking that oil and gas development will net us some form of direct discount for local use of the resource is likely to be misguided. To me it is like expecting a discount on a gold wedding ring simply because there is gold mining activity here in the Yukon. The resource will be priced at full market value and that is what we will pay.....because we do not own it.
Up 23 Down 2
north_of_60 on Apr 13, 2014 at 7:26 am
Perhaps foster & wright can enlighten the rest of us on how they pursue petroleum-free lifestyles during Yukon winters. I seem to never be around on those days when they come to town in their horse drawn wagons.
Nobody is prevented from using wind and solar, and turning off the petro-tap in their own lives.
Go for it, but don't expect the rest of us to go along with it, or to finance your hobbies.
It's always easy to tell others what's best for them, eh? It's a lot harder to actually 'walk-the-walk'. Hypocrites have no credibility.
Up 34 Down 4
Just Say'in on Apr 12, 2014 at 12:02 pm
Sally…. Boy, are you big on the lefty Catch Phrases. "Nasty Stuff" Really?? Nobody better catch you fueling up at the pumps or heating your house. You're maybe a bit of a hypocrite?
Up 7 Down 28
Sally Wright on Apr 11, 2014 at 7:52 am
Light sweet crude under Eagle Plains? Not likely. YEC tried to burn Eagle Plains oil back in the '90s as a test on the Dawson diesels before the transmission line. Kept on clogging up the works.
When are we going to start getting serious about our addiction to fossil fuels? Leave that nasty stuff in the ground, away from our water and our atmosphere.
Up 7 Down 25
B. foster on Apr 11, 2014 at 2:51 am
Sebastion, Karen and particularly north (as per usual) are out to lunch. While I agree YEC should stick with diesel you all seem to have missed the moral to this story.
Northern Cross is looking for a way to get it's product to MARKET. FOR MONEY....LOTS OF MONEY....it's why they do what they do.
north....why is it you cannot get your head around this? If the resource is developed it will be for profit....so frikkin simple. There are charitable entities out there but those who develop natural resources for open market are not one of them. If we did get a price break it would only reflect some "consideration" given to them that would make it easier for them to get at the goods which would mean we are prostituting the resource to get a whif while the bulk disappears.
Much the same as when China offers to develop infrastructure in a given area in return for "consideration" in negotiations allowing them to come in and extract resources. Build schools, develop road systems, invest in training, whatever, whatever it takes to grease the skids and secure the goods. Blankets and beads yo...
Unless we can nationalize the resource, develop it in house and realize the bulk of the profit nationally it should remain in the ground until we can develop a national energy strategy that reflects "ownership" of the resource. Our national negotiating skills in this regard currently suck, nationally and right here at home. Just consider that our royalty for every ounce of gold mined here nets us a whopping 0.36 cents as an example. Do you really guess royalties on oil and gas would be much different? Yes there will be some jobs. yes there will be spin offs in the business sector. Yes there will be considerations over and above the royalties.
There will be all this in addition to the rich getting richer on our resources which we give away for peanuts by comparison. The icing is we will squabble locally over the right to give it all away.
We should not co-operate in these efforts. We should leave it in the ground until we have the ability and wisdom to see what we have. This may mean additionally that it stays in the ground until our grandchildren are grown. Hopefully they have more brains than we do because thus far generations before us have been exceedingly short sighted and clearly unwise.
Wake up y'all....
Up 15 Down 28
Skagway Saviour on Apr 10, 2014 at 8:52 am
Maybe Skagway should read about Lac Megantic, other oil and gas explosions and information on spills in the U.S.
Oil is a dirty business which has profound effects when it blows up or catches fire or gets into fresh or salt water.
Is there much oil in the Peel? I hope not.
Up 21 Down 1
north_of_60 on Apr 10, 2014 at 7:59 am
Karen and Sebastien are correct. It would be far more sensible to run generators in the Yukon communities on Eagle Plains oil. It would require only a minimum amount of processing to use it as diesel fuel.
Up 21 Down 7
Brice Carruthers on Apr 10, 2014 at 4:38 am
This article for hippies, leftists, and eco-warriors is like waiving a red cape in front of a bull. Although, I doubt this plan would ever come to fruition, I do like the idea that it is on the table.
Up 39 Down 8
Karen Baltgailis on Apr 10, 2014 at 3:19 am
It would make more sense to modify the Yukon Energy diesel generators so they can use the Eagle Plains light sweet crude, it would probably be fairly simple, and much cheaper than switching to LNG generators. Also the oil would be more stable in storage.
Up 36 Down 1
Sebastian Jones on Apr 10, 2014 at 3:11 am
Would it not make more sense to try to run it through the Yukon Energy diesel generators?
Up 49 Down 17
Progress in the Yukon on Apr 10, 2014 at 2:36 am
In 2002 the Yukon Party got the Yukon back on the track of a strong economic future. This is just more good news that will create jobs, provide taxes for government from local sources. These jobs and taxes will provide the Yukon with the wealth to continue the high standard of living which we enjoy. It is so easy to be critical of any government but try it for awhile you might come to a different way of thinking. We need wealth if we want a good health care system, education, seniors, all of it. Travel to other parts of the world and see how they live. Keep the Yukon progressing.
Up 12 Down 37
Faroite on Apr 10, 2014 at 12:21 am
No infrastructure to move oil and gas product from the Yukon. And guess what?
It may be because the Yukon never was and oil and gas producing Territory and never will be. Taxpayers aren't gonna foot the bill for infrastructure when there aren't any proven records of worthwhile reserves to tap from.
Up 14 Down 47
FracasMike on Apr 9, 2014 at 10:24 pm
Guess Northern Cross is foaming at the mouth now that their partner in crime, the Yukon Party, has granted them a pathway to develop the Peel. Drill baby drill, frack baby frack. Wool hoo can't wait until we suck every last drop out of one of the last places on this planet that has a relatively intact ecosystem. Who needs the caribou, when I can use what's under the stuff that's under them to power my power boat, ATV, Hummer, oh wait, I also have my Winnebago trailer - 'cause really, I don't want to get too close to nature when camping.
To all those NIMBY greenies who drive to their protests, this will be a more reliable fuel source to get them to their anarchy demonstrations. And the city of Whitehorse, who wants people to drive less and take transit and to bike in the middle of winter; come on, we need to stimulate the local economy and get the demand for local fuel up to get this local black gold online sooner rather the later.
Yee haw, the earth is bountiful indeed, never ending.